With the $4 billion Chinese mobile game market its big play for 2015, Kabam ditches web games

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It's a busy time at Kabam, which is clearly repositioning itself for 2015.

A strategic move see the F2P publisher transfering what it calls "the majority of its web games" to RockYou.

For Kabam, the shift enables it to focus on its existing mobile and smartphone business in the west, as well as prepare for its anticipated entry into the Chinese market: something fueled by a $120 million publishing deal with Alibaba.

The transfer also plays into RockYou's model of monetising the long tail of online games through operational efficiencies.

In terms of the games being transfered over, they include many of Kabam's signature titles:

Dragons of Atlantis,

Edgeworld,

The Godfather,

Glory of Rome, and

Kingdoms of Camelot.

Kabam will continue to operate Castle Age, Realm of the Mad God and other games that it publishes for thirdparty developers on Kabam.com.

Concentrated juice

"This is a highly strategic move for Kabam as we are concentrating all of our development might and muscle on mobile games for our core North American and European markets, and expansion to Asia," said COO Kent Wakeford.

In related news, it's been reported that Kabam employees and early investors have sold off more than $40 million in shares.

It's the second such sell-off during 2014, and suggests that following King's difficult IPO - its shares remain underwater - Kabam has decided to postpone its IPO plans, at least in the short-term.

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.